Read between the lines of countless articles on Alyssa Thompsons move from Angel City FC to Chelsea and you will get a clear sense that Angel City FC really didnt want to let her go. And as Chelsea closed in on the U.S. womens national team forward, it was clear neither did the National Womens Soccer League (NWSL).
The romantic stories of a loyal player dragging a team from mediocrity to a title are increasingly categorized as works of fiction. This is the era of the superteam. The best-backed clubs, such as Chelsea with its six consecutive Womens Super League (WSL) titles, can stockpile players, while the rest of the landscape aspires to develop a talent who can tug at these giants heartstrings and pursestrings alike.
Players are still the main drivers of interest in the sport. As the longtime superpower in womens soccer, one would think that the United States should have a leg up on building the best league in the world, thanks to that deep pool of talent. But while world-class players of all nationalities still make moves to the NWSL, the ongoing trend of WSL teams plucking the top U.S. players from their domestic league is an understandable concern.
Thompson is neither the first nor the last USWNT star to leave NWSL and take her career elsewhere. And while that wanderlust is inevitable in some cases, the league likely wont want to see it become a habit.
With marquee players such as Trinity Rodman and Sophia Wilson nearing the end of their contracts with NWSL clubs, and a salary cap in place, its a growing predicamentone of the NWSLs own design.
Salary caps are an American invention.
The first unofficial salary cap was enacted by the NHL during the Great Depression, which says a lot about the rationale for having one.
While theirs and a makeshift mid-1940s trial in the NBA were quickly packed away when the economy recovered, the mechanism returned in the 1980s as athletes commanded higher salaries than even the richest owners could stomach paying across their roster. They were seen as a necessary makeweight for wealthy owners to maintain leverage with their star employees.
The salary cap, in all of its forms, has been part of the American sports landscape for over four decades. Some leagues have strict caps; others opt for luxury taxes on high spenders. A few have a hybrid structure somewhere in between.
The mechanism has been crucial to Major League Soccers framework since the United States launched the mens league as a condition of hosting the 1994 World Cup. It has allowed MLS to foster a rare level of annual parity, giving 30 fanbases reason to hope they could challenge for a title in any three-year window. It has also kept MLS from reaching the absolute pinnacle of the mens game, as teams simply cant spend to match the talent of rival circuits in Europe, South America and Mexico.
When the NWSL launched in 2012, with U.S. Soccer playing a major role in its construction, a cap was included from launch. The nation with the worlds deepest pool of womens soccer players was confident it could be the home of most national team stars, especially given how poorly womens leagues were supported around the world.
Even as expansion fees skyrocketed to hundreds of millions of dollars, the salary cap was an assurance of sorts for investors. Their spending on sports can only get so high, and there was a mechanism to use as a shield against criticism of finance-guided decisions.
The problem for NWSL is that the rest of the world is now investing without the same self-inflicted restrictions.
The latest NWSL collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2030, determined that teams must compile squads of 22 to 26 players within the salary cap. The maximum is $3.3 million in 2025 and will rise gradually until it hits $5.1 million in 2030. The minimum player salary for 2025 is $48,500 and will rise to $82,500 by 2030; there is no maximum salary. So while its possible that a club could pay 25 players identical $132,000 salaries for a balanced squad, it does not work out that way.
This was a key factor when Naomi Girma made the move from San Diego Wave to Chelsea earlier this year, a realization that her departure (partly) came down to the realities of her being a defender. Soccer teams often invest more in attackers who generally command higher transfer fees and salaries because goals are how you win games and their jerseys are in demand than defenders. As such, even a world-class defender such as Girma could struggle to be a teams top earner.
In that sense, Thompson is exactly who a team like Angel City FC should be built around: a 20-year-old USWNT star leading her local teams attack in between international windows.
But no player is immune to cap considerations. When NWSL teams can no longer guarantee the best salaries in the landscape, players will have to consider additional factors to a greater degree. While many other factors led to Thompsons departure, cap space is a factor all NWSL teams have to consider when negotiating.
Would Angel City rather commit more of its budget to Thompsons wages or use that money on her replacement and two other starting-level players? We have our answer.
Theres a salary cap in NWSL and I think thats an ongoing issue there that hopefully can be changed or increased, USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps said in April, herself having spent six seasons with the Portland Thorns in between stints with Paris Saint-Germain and OL Lyonnes. Its a factor in the NWSL and for players coming overseas.
It wasnt anything against the NWSL, but I wanted to come play in the Champions League again. I wanted to play for a big club like (Lyonnnes). I think I just needed a different kind of challenge. Maybe thats also what these players felt.
A greater number of NWSL clubs are spending more ambitiously on players and facilities, and may be ready to lift the cap restrictions, too. Michelle Kang, who owns a multi-club organization that includes Washington Spirit, OL Lyonnes, and the London City Lionesses, said owners were discussing the concern well before Girma and Thompson went to Kingsmeadow.
Free agency doesnt mean much to us if the salary cap doesnt go up because were gonna lose our players to Europe, right? Kang said in March 2023. We as a group, 12 owners, soon to be 14 owners, we have all those issues on the table and working very hard.
The salary cap was raised the following year, with escalators to continue to increase it, but it remains in place.
Unfortunately, it might be too late for total cap abolishment to be the solution. The NWSLs cautious approach helped stabilize the league, as it did for MLS. It also allowed the powerful pull of UEFA to translate to the womens game over the past decade, making it a continental behemoth that the NWSL may not be able to overcome.
The combining factors have left NWSL with an identity crisis. Are they the best league in the world? A selling league? A bit of both?
The fan perspective of the selling club is driven home in a two-comment exchange below The Athletics initial newsbreak of Chelseas pursuit: So ACFC is a feeder club? Brighton for the womens game? and It looks like ACFC is now the Triple A team for Chelsea. Whoopee!
Theres a different spice blend to this reaction compared to what followed Girmas winter move. Factors beyond Girmas own career made it reasonable to leave a club that was undergoing a wholesale transformation working out from the aftermath of the fraught Jill Ellis era, dealing with Alex Morgans retirement, and navigating a coaching search. For the leagues best defender to depart for a then-record fee felt like part of the reinvention.
Despite launching together in 2022, Angel City has never hit the same sporting heights as San Diego. While the Wave has an NWSL Shield and an NWSL Challenge Cup, Angel Citys landmark achievement is arguably being the NWSL team with the highest valuation $280 million, as of May.
A well-balanced budget sheet does not build a club; players do.
For a while, Thompson was the face of the most valuable NWSL team. Now, just three years into her time with the club, shes gone.
Unless or until theres more financial freedom, these pain points will recur with increasing frequency.
While WSLs lack of a salary cap might not be the answer to keeping players and maintaining the leagues competitive nature, as only a few teams in England are currently spending big, one possible solution for a NWSL willingly beholden to American sports customs is to take another page from MLSs book.
The designated player allows teams to spend as much as they would like in transfer fees and wages on up to three star players, who each hit the cap at a fixed rate ($743,750 in 2025, or 12.5 percent of the cap). Teams could then determine how much its worth keeping their USWNT stars, for sporting and marketing reasons alike, knowing theres a limit on their salary cap hit. It is a concept that will not be enacted before this winter, but would have definitely come in handy.
An even sterner test of the NWSLs pull awaits this offseason, with Rodman and Wilson (pending her 2026 player option) set to hit free agency this winter. In this case, neither the Spirit nor the Portland Thorns could parry away transfer offers once they hit the open market.
Will they, or an NWSL rival, be able to make an offer that could withstand any options among the UEFA Womens Champions League class?
Its a gamble that could halt the longtime upward trajectory of team valuations if its no longer seen as the premier destination for the nations most famous players. After all, theyre the ones who make and break fans interest in any team.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women’s national team, Chelsea, Angel City, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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